I just got back from a one-day conference in Chicago on condo hotels sponsored by the International Society of Hospitality Consultants. Great speakers and great content, but more on that at another time.

I spent the night at the Hotel Amalfi, the Hostmark Hospitality property across the street from Harry Caray’s restaurant in River North. The property, which Hostmark hopes is the foundation for a new chain, is a condo hotel with a cool vibe that’s also warm and friendly. Everyone from the doorman to front desk clerk was inviting and friendly in a genuine, non-programmed way. As a non-hip Baby Boomer, I felt as welcome as my 27-year-old son would have been.

From a facilities and services point of view, the Amalfi has a few touches other hoteliers could emulate. The front desk is unconventional in that agents sit behind desks, and guests are invited to sit across from them during the check-in transaction. This isn’t a new idea, but it’s a great one, and I’m surprised more hotel don’t adopt it. The arrangement takes more space than a front desk, but it would work well in a lobby that also incorporates kiosks for those guests who prefer self-service to a face-to-face check-in.

One of the Amalfi’s unique approaches is its breakfast service. First of all, it’s free, a nice touch in an urban hotel. Instead of serving the meal in a sometimes-bleak, often-impersonal breakfast room, the hotel sets up its juice, coffee and carb offering in the elevator lobby on each floor, making it easy for guests to go get breakfast in their robes and then head back to their rooms to watch Matt and Katie (and soon Meredith), Imus or Mike and Mike. Obviously, the service is more labor-intensive for the hotel, but it does save a space that in most hotels is only used a couple of hours a day. What do you think?

One beef I had with the property: lighting in the bathroom wasn’t bright enough for me. I imagine woman travelers would also find it inadequate for their makeup regimes.

Who says state legislators don’t work hard? In Florida, for example, the House of Representative is in a heated debate over what dessert will reign as the official pie of the Sunshine State. Despite some early support on behalf of pecan from the northern half of the state, the front-runner seems to be key lime.

As the key vote approaches, even lobbyists are weighing in on the subject. The America Pie Council (yes, there is a trade association for every possible industry) is pushing hard for key lime. My only regret is that C-SPAN probably won’t be televising the debate and vote in Tallahassee.

By the way, should key lime be adopted as the Florida state pie, it will join apple pie as the only other official state pie (Vermont). Twelve states currently have some type of official food, and several states have multiple representatives. Massachusetts, for example, has five official state foods: muffin (corn), bean (baked navy), dessert (Boston cream pie), cookie (chocolate chip) and donut (Boston cream).

The news this week has been all about the ramp-up in gasoline prices. In most locations, per-gallon prices are above $2.75 and quickly heading toward $3. I saw a TV news report this morning showing a station in New York City where the price of premium gas is already above $4 a gallon. An isolated instance, to be sure, but it may portend the near future.

Of course, the key concern for the hotel industry is how the latest rise in fuel costs will affect the summer tourism season. Last year, marketing guru Peter Yesawich did research showing that consumer driving patterns wouldn’t change significantly until gas prices topped $3.50. That’s a mark some analysts believe we’ll see by the unofficial kickoff to summer, Memorial Day.

The question remains: Will Americans say the hell with gas prices and continue to travel like nomads this summer, or will the economic punch of $60 fill-ups be enough to stunt the current run of prosperity in the U.S. travel business? I’m still betting on the former scenario, as consumers have proven over and over that you can’t mess with their vacations.

Keep your finger crossed that I’m correct.

I like to read Joe Sharkey’s weekly columns on business travel in the New York Times . I’ve met the guy, and he’s the same in person as he seems in print—just a regular Joe who both enjoys and gets frustrated by the travel experience. However, I must take issue with his piece in yesterday’s Times (pg. C10 in the national edition) in which he proposed the idea that hotel food has improved considerably in recent years.

It’s true that in many full-service urban and resort properties you can find some of the most imaginative, satisfying and tasty cuisine anywhere. In the past year alone, I’ve had fabulous meals at hotels as varied as the Renaissance Cleveland, The Breakers, the Westin Rio Mar and The Homestead. My wife Carolyn and I still rave about each of those experiences.

The problem is that these meals were all in the kind of hotels no one is building anymore. The template for new hotel development today isn’t the big-box downtown convention hotel with three restaurants and four bars or the old-fashioned high-style resort with its grand dining room. Today, the construction action is in limited-service properties (no food, except for the ubiquitous free continental breakfast) or in the new class of lifestyle hotels (aloft, Hyatt Place, Indigo), where the f&b experience is centered more on design, vibe and technology than it is on cuisine. Food in these places tends to be a grab-and-go selection that’s meant to be gobbled while the eater taps away on his or her computer screen. This f&b style isn’t inherently bad, since it’s geared to the presumed needs of a new class of travelers (i.e., Gen Xers.)

Sadly, however, except for a few hotel companies like Kimpton, the art of high cuisine in hotels may one day be a relic of the past. And in their hurry to multi-task, I’m afraid these Gen Xers will miss one of the highlights of visiting a great hotel.